Geneva Base Camp - Time Out

I awoke to the sound of rain beating merciliessly against the shutters, this was pretty much what had been forecast and I could only imagine the conditions up in the mountains to be severe. I decided to "call in sick" and treat myself to a duvet day, catch up on lost sleep, wash my socks and do all the usual organisation and management chores that get forgotten in the daily rush to and from the slopes.
The last five days have involved some pretty relentless driving and riding in some brutal conditions. To my own surprise I am not as bruised (yet) as in previous years.

But I have taken a number of hard face plants, one whilst not wearing my helmet, oh the folly of it. This has left me with pins and needles in my finger tips, I don't know the medical term, but I have experienced it before and it is no doubt a bit of trauma to the nerves as they pass through the wrists. It feels just like you are touching stinging nettles the whole time, I hope you appreciate the pain I go through to write this blog :-)

A quiet day in at the SkiBiker SkiBike Blog office

It also makes me appreciate all the supports I now wear before riding, I suspect without them, this trip may have already ended prematurely. Yesterday I saw a body being loaded into a "private ambulance", the sort that go straight to the morgue and then the undertakers, time of death 16:45, cause accidental, case closed...makes you think.

On a happier note, the most life threatening decision I shall make today is whether to have the dry crisp Bourgogne Aligote or the cheekily fruity Alsace Pinot Gris with my dinner. A votre sante, salut!

Flaine - The Best Of Days And The Worst Of Days

I left before sunrise to a glorious pre-dawn glow, set in a totally clear sky, highlighting the jagged silhouettes of the Alps laid out ahead of me in a glorious panorama. I was to make a rendezvous with Carl Day, who has been staying for the week in Flaine with lifelong buddy Andy.
Poor Andy, a snowboarder, has already suffered from four days of skibike marketing peer pressure and now there were two of us to face.
Our riding was for the most part off-piste, Carl has recently traded in his LenzSport Brawler for the lighter and more nimble Launch model. He has equipped it with pontoon skis, ideal for such off-piste riding. That said, I don't know what Devin does with his edges but their off-piste prowess doesn't seem to mar their on-piste grip. The man is clearly a Wizard of many Black Arts.

Flaine - good humour whilst stuck in the lift

Carl's enthusiasm and sheer sense of fun shone through, I keep recalling the image of him stacking into a "Danger Slow Down" banner placed across the trail. Its fluorescent red colour matched his frame exactly and for a brief moment it looked like he had split the bike into two.

The riding above Flaine was sublime and putting the first tracks on huge swathes of mountainside was a joy. It was the best of days, but sadly it was also the worst of days, the short pleasures were marred by the sheer amount of hanging around, most brought on by the sudden early arrival of high winds.

Flaine - putting the first tracks on huge swathes of mountainside

First it was the queue to buy a lift ticket, why only open 3 out of 6 kiosks on a bluebird day? Then it was a long queue to get the gondola up the mountain. Later the cable car we were on stopped, making a 5 minute journey last 20. Then the main cable car stopped too and the final straw was the interlinking chairlifts stopping. If this was expected why were we not warned about this at Samoens?
This meant an intolerable wait for a shuttle bus to take us from Flaine to Vernant. Accompanied by all the bad mannered jostling that Europeans have a reputation for, I only managed to find a place fighting my way on the third one to arrive. We then had to head up the mountain and across to Morillon via a low level route. Of course this meant another wait to use the Morillon telecabin to descend, in order to take another crowded, but better natured shuttle back to Samoens. I had left Carl and Andy around 3pm and didn't arrive at Samoens till 6pm.

The Grand Massif now charge a hefty premium for the use of their domain, nearly €45 for a day pass, this is double what I have been paying elsewhere and puts it  close to the prices charged by elite resorts such as Chamonix and Courchevel. If they are going to charge this level of premium, then services levels must be raised to match. If high winds are forecast, surely a couple of extra coaches could be hired for the day without breaking the resort's finances? Could you not give customers a discount off their next visit or a free drink, this is how customer service works elsewhere? Or are we just cattle to be milked dry and sent home empty?

The whole experience has left me with a sour taste that simply will not go away. I have to be back in Morillon in a few days time to ride with Mark Bayston, but it has gone to the bottom of my list of places to ride again.

Back On The Dole - Part I

Well the weather seems to be stuck in a rut at the moment, when it's this stormy you are better off staying low and amongst the trees. So today I headed past yesterday's ride at La Faucille and about 5 miles further along the ridge to Les Rousses and the skibike friendly outpost at La Dole. On arrival I was horrified to see the car park all but empty and the chairlift not running. It turned out they were running just a few drag lifts as high winds were to be expected. The jovial lady in the lift office confirmed that, when running, SnowScoots (and I suspect skibikes too) can use the chairlift.
I bought a morning session ticket and stuck some skis on my feet to go explore. The overlapping selection of drag lifts is mildly confusing at the best of times, with poor visibility and driving snow covering up the direction signs it was quite a challenge. At least in this station the only way home is down and there is no back mountain to get lost on. That's not strictly true, there is another side, but if I was on it I would most likely be dead fairly quickly.

La Dole - one lone E.S.F. instructor with student in tow, a few lifties and a couple of Scandinavians

On my last visit I couldn't work out why the snow on the runs at the top of the hill are always so thin and icy, unlike those lower down, today I found out the answer.
As I emerged from the forest approaching the summit, I was assailed by a wind of biblical proportions carrying with it heavy snow. I would guess it was somewhere between 30 and 40 mph, if that sounds tame, try standing on the roof of your car while your buddy drives you down the road in heavy snow at that speed and you'll understand.
These sorts of conditions are very common in Scotland and the canny Scots erect picket fences to catch the wind driven snow. Oddly, they don't do this here and the snow must end up in Basel before it eventually settles.
Having got out of the wind, there were some pleasant tree line runs to enjoy in near total solitude; I saw one lone E.S.F. instructor with student in tow, a few lifties and a couple of Scandinavians. I don't know when the weather will settle down again, but it is going to be one hell of a Bluebird day when it finally arrives and I will be there with my skibike waiting.

La Faucille - Shine Like A Diamond

After yesterday's ski fest, I was determined to get back on the skibike today and headed to La Faucille another local ski station in the Jura mountains. It is situated at the top of a mountain pass, off the N5 trunk road, that heads from Geneva in a Northerly direction. It's a 30 minute journey going there and a bit less coming back as you have to negotiate a steep climb with numerous hairpin bends.
I left base camp with a fine drizzle falling, this changed to rain and then snow once I was past the pretty market town of Gex. The road stayed clear, but the car park had a good few inches of crunchy snow on it. It looked like the weather was going to be a repeat of yesterday's performance and visibility was going to be the issue.

During a clearer spell - visibility was going to be the issue

I got my lift pass and headed for the chairlift that serves as the backbone of the station and is the one allocated for SnowScoot (and skibike) use. It is of the detachable design so loading and unloading are stress free. Curiously for every one or so chairs there is a single enclosed gondola. I opted to use the chairs, but it turned out I could have used either.

The elevation is only 230 metres, so none of the runs are particularly long, but there is plenty of variety to suit all abilities. I remembered too late that one of the red runs is quite steep and prone to ice, so you can guess which one I found myself on for my warm up run. There were some excellent off piste sections including the obligatory, under the chairlift bit and this is where I spent a lot of time.

I stopped for a quick lunch, my mother used to say that "hunger is the best sauce" she was right, the cheese crepe and vin chaud I consumed tasted like the finest meal I have ever eaten.

I ended the day on the Grand Tetras blue run for the most part picking my way from one piste marker to the next. Occasionally the skies lifted enough to see more than 20 metres ahead, which I took as my cue for a quick blast.
I was so pleased to see that La Faucille remains friendly toward skibikes, although I am probably the only one to have rode one here. Like a diamond La Faucille might be small, but it is perfectly formed.

Metabief - Skibikes Not Allowed

I owe the inventors of Ibuprofen, commonly known under the trade name Nurofen a huge thank you. After yesterday's hooning I was expecting to be as stiff as a board, but felt fine from the get go and headed for the car. Having passed the ski station of Metabief so many times in my travels, it has been on my hit list for a long time. It is located just off the trunk road that serves to connect Western Switzerland with Eastern France. It is easily accessible from Geneva, with a motorway standard route to within a few kilometres of the chairlift at Les Tavins. From Geneva airport the distance is about 50 miles and is covered door to door in around an hour.

I left my Geneva base camp in fine but overcast weather but arrived in Metabief to shocking conditions. I joked with the lads in the car next to me that it was just like Scotland and they found this hilarious as they had just said the same thing before I arrived. Sorry proud Scots, you know it's true; I hoped that, much like Scottish weather, this was just a squall that would blow itself out.
Half an hour later I was still battling gusty winds and hill fog, so stayed safely in the sheltered wooded runs around Piquemiette. Most of the runs are steeper than their grading would suggest, but very enjoyable to attack with vigour, not a place for nervous first weekers.
Some runs were so entertaining I had to go back for another go, then another and so on, to the point where my thigh muscles were screaming at me to stop.

Finally the winds calmed, the mist lifted and I headed over to the Super Longvilles sector.
This felt like a much older resort from a bygone era of Ray bans, cable bindings and bobble hats. Situated on a sunny mesa plateau, it has 5 short runs of different grades, served by a quartet of drag lifts. Even the red runs would probably be graded blue elsewhere and the greens were more like cross country routes with a couple of sudden drops. Still it would be a fine place to chill out on a sunny day with three generations of the same family.

Metabief - excellent access, infrastructure, variety and good value

The centre of the station at Metabief appears to have been well designed and upgraded over the years. The centre piece is a modern detachable chair lift acting as a transport hub with many runs fanning out from the top. I had seen SnowScoots out on the pistes and the lifties had confirmed that they were permitted, but in the afternoon when I presented my skibike it was rejected. What a shame and a poor end to what could have been a great day. With its easy access and abundance of chair lifts I felt that this would be an excellent place to use for skibiking, Metabief you're loosing Euros with this sort of policy.

In conclusion Metabief has; excellent access, good infrastructure, great variety and good value. Please can skibikes be given equality with SnowScoot so we can enjoy it all too. Now where's my Ibuprofen, skiing sucks, my legs are killing me?

Got My Mojo Working - A Foggy Day In Crozet

Last night heavy snow was forecast right down to the level of Geneva airport which is opposite my window, what twaddle. Torrential rain fell, all quite depressing and no different to the weather I left behind in London.
My hope was that a few hundred metres of elevation would have pushed things past freezing point and there would be freshies to ride today.

I made a split second decision to head for Crozet, it is only 20 minutes away, if the weather failed me I could come back in a flash. I also had lots of new toys to test out, if I met with failure it was good knowing that I was close to Geneva base camp. Lastly, if the weather closed in it was a place I have explored before, hopefully I wouldn't get lost.

I arrived before 09:00 expecting the place to be empty, but there was already a queue on the steps leading up to the gondolas.
I followed my standard protocol of making a ski based warm up. I had some new (to me) Salomon SB 9 Snow Blades to give a good working out on some real snow. I picked them up in the late summer off eBay for a steal. I know at one Andy Upsylon was running the next generation of SB 10 on his LenzSport, if it's good enough for Andy, it's definitely good enough for me.
For Salomon this era of design heralded a marked change from making mini-skis to a proper ski board. The side cut radius is typical of this style of ski, but they were substantially fatter than previous year's models and had the binding mounted dead centre and not offset to the rear.
On your feet they reward good technique, ski parallel with good weight distribution and plenty of angulation and they are a treat. But try to lazily skid around corners and you are informed that they are most decidedly not amused. At the same time I was able to replaced my tired Raichle Flexon ski boots, with a new old pair, exactly the same. Oh and in the correct size too, it seems my old pair, sold to me as size 8 were much closer to 11.
Skiing in fresh snow is tiring though, especially when you are as out of shape as I have become, after half a dozen runs I was getting exhausted.

The antidote was a trip back down the hill in the gondola to dig out my skibike. This too has benefited from some new features, the most obvious being some shiny new (to me) Line Mike Nick Pro skiboards. As a design they are the same vintage as the Marin frame and Alpine Skibikes adapters, so it's all locked in the same era now - Retro Skibike.

A mix of late 90's technology - my retro skibike

The riding was excellent, with a good foot of fresh snow on the ground and a temperature just below freezing point you couldn't ask for better. Sadly for most of the day visibility was an issue, but almost all the runs are through trees so at least you get some sense of speed and direction in such conditions. I alternated between every conceivable run and then did a whole pile of off-piste before ending the day with some speedy easy runs as the station began to empty.

New vs. old ski boards

I went back down the hill reassured that my skibike mojo is coming back to me and this is just day one. This season could be epic.

Arrival In Geneva - And Relax

When I was at Infant School we used to have these bizarre "Music and Motion" lessons, a hybrid of physical education and modern dance. I vaguely recall having to pretend to be a tree; beginning as a tiny sapling, growing into a mighty oak and shedding my leaves in Autumn, all done to a taped scratchy low-fi piano accompaniment. It's no wonder that Team GB took years to achieve Olympic Gold medals if this is what we were doing to hone our young physiques. Anyway I digress, having exhausted ourselves being trees swaying in the wind, our teacher would finally allows us to fall out of character with the much yearned for phrase "And relax".

This morning I awoke before the alarm clock, this is always a good sign that my body has had enough of all this resting and regenerating thing and is all set up for another day of exploration and adventure. As these weren't quite on the schedule today, I had to content myself with a delightful continental breakfast at Aux Plumes de Grigy before heading Geneva bound in the direction of the Vosges and Jura mountains.

After drifting across something unbelievably slick on a roundabout within the first 5 minutes of setting off, the rest of journey was pleasingly uneventful. I made great time and the miles rolled by quickly. Four hours later I stopped for a snack break at Jougne on the French / Swiss border where I took the time to admire the impressive "renversee" black run at the Metabief ski station, I am definitely coming back to give it a go. The guy in the hire shop seemed to think that veloskis (skibikes) were permitted too, although I have to be honest and admit this is one run that I would trust to planks on my feet over those on a bicycle any day with a "y" in it. From the road it appears to be vertical, but I know this has to be a trick of the eye, doesn't it? More later on this one.

Cookies and milk break in Metabief

I arrived in Geneva just before 16:00 or 4pm in old money, this journey splitting is just too civilised. I had time to unload whilst it was still light, chat with the neighbours, have a 30 minute nap and get my shopping in for the next few days.

The question is, do I take tomorrow off or hit the slopes on a Sunday. Whatever happens I will have to take it easy (certainly no near vertical black runs) as I have been doing a great deal of administrative and organisation work. As a result my body has the soft and flabby appearance of a sedentary matron and not the chiselled appearance of a wannabe tree. What's was that Mrs Minch? Oh yes.. And relax.